RECAP: Them is not everyone. They are not human, they are adult and both male and female. The relevant water is salt water that is used for swimming, excretory purposes and bathing. They are not fish, but this is close. They are not birds, mammals, amphibians or reptiles. They do live in the ocean. They are invertibrates, but not crustaceans, octopi, plankton, urchins, anemones or jellyfish.

They are squid. They are mollusks and not spiny-skinned creatures.

A significant discovery was made in 2010, but there was no relevant disaster or oil spill. The discovery was not really “announced” nor was any legislation passed.

Giant squid are not relevant and neither is Calamari. The relevant water is the sea, not a tank or aquarium. The water quality is not relevant, nor the salt concentration, oxygen concentration, pollution levels, water temperature or water pressure.

Prior to the discovery, did people think that the water was the reason for something the squid do? Or for something that was happening to the squid? Did the discovery reveal that there was another cause?

Is where the water is (geographically) relevant? it is the ocean, you can't miss it

Prior to the discovery, did people think that the water was the reason for something the squid do? no Or for something that was happening to the squid? no Did the discovery reveal that there was another cause? no, FA leaning over your shoulder

did the squid tend to gather in a certain place and people thought it was to do with the water? no but it was somethig else? has nothing to do with what area of the ocean the squid are in. Applies no matter where in the ocean they are found

SPOILER: Marine biologist Silvia Maciá was boating on the north coast of Jamaica in the summer of 2001 when she noticed something soar out of the sea. At first she thought it was a member of the flying fish family—a group of marine fish that escape predators by breaking the water's surface at great speed and gliding through the air on unusually large pectoral fins. But after tracing the creature's graceful arc for a few seconds, Maciá realized this was no fish. It was a squid—and it was flying.

With her husband and fellow biologist Michael Robinson, Maciá identified the airborne cephalopod as a Caribbean reef squid (Sepioteuthis sepioidea)—a lithe, torpedo-shaped critter with long, undulating fins. They think the squid was startled by the noise of the boat's outboard engine and estimated that the 20-centimeter-long mollusk reached a height of two meters above the water and flew a total distance of 10 meters—50 times its body length. What's more, the squid extended its fins and flared its tentacles in a radial pattern while airborne, as though guiding its flight.

"It was doing this weird thing with its arms where it had them spread out almost in a circle," recalls Maciá, who teaches at Barry University in Florida. "It had its fins kind of flared out as much as it could—it really looked liked it was flying. It hadn't accidentally flopped out of the water; it was maintaining its posture in a certain way. It was doing something active."

On a LISTSERV dedicated to mollusks, Maciá and Robinson (University of Miami), called out for any other researchers who had witnessed airborne squid—a phenomenon the husband and wife had not personally observed before. Maciá and Robinson received numerous replies from scientists with whom they eventually co-wrote a study in 2004 in the Journal of Molluscan Studies. The paper collects sightings of at least six distinct squid species squirting themselves out of the ocean and over the waves, sometimes solo, sometimes in packs—sometimes with enough force to match the speed of boats or wind up on decks. But the paper includes no photographs or video clips; its evidence is largely anecdotal. The fact is that documented instances of flying squid are incredibly rare. Most people are unprepared for such a sight. The 2004 paper's authors argue that "gliding" is too passive a term to describe what squid do when they leave the ocean for the air: "flight" is more fitting.

"From our observations it seemed like squid engage in behaviors to prolong their flight," Maciá says. "One of our co-authors saw them actually flapping their fins. Some people have seen them jetting water while in flight. We felt that 'flight' is more appropriate because it implies something active."

Prior to 2001, the squid's ability to launch themselves into the air was completely unknown.

Thanks everyone!

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